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Corridor width

I

Inspector 102

Silver Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2009
Messages
357
Location
N/E Indiana
What is the history behind E occupancies requiring 72" corridor width when other occupancies can be as small as 44" safe I occupancies. Is it because of hallway lockers and students standing around in the hallways. I have an E occupancy that measures 70" corridors and trying to justify a variance request through the state review process. In this case there are no lockers lining the hallways and they are used only for transition from room to room and the cafeteria. What say you?
 
I have no information regarding the history of the code requirement. The odds are that 72" sounded okay to the committee and there is no actual reason other than, "Well it's big enough".

Is this project in the plan review stage? If so, can't they find 2" somewhere? If it's built, they can't find 2" anywhere.
 
I agree with ICE. Outside of asking for what went on in the committee's heads, I'm willing to bet the justification was something like "lots of students could be in the hallway at once. We need to make sure we provide enough width to accommodate so many people going in different directions with classroom doors open... What number sounds good?" Someone else promptly yelled "6 feet". And that was that.

Breaking it down logically, having a hallway that wide makes sense. Classroom doors often (by code? I don't work on education projects) swing into the hallway and sometimes the classrooms are right across from each other. If both doors open at the same time, they could hit each other with a smaller hallway, which could be a bigger issue given how many students could be in the hallway at any one time. Even when that isn't the case, a door opening out into a, say, 44" hallway would block most of the traffic for a few seconds. Having extra space when there could be hundreds of people in the hallway allows for easier movement, especially when doors may be opening and closing often.

No idea if that's the justification they used, but that's what I would personally use. Again, I don't work on education projects, so I could be missing something.
 
Doors from the classrooms swing in due to individual occupant load. Yes, the project is built and apparently someone did not check dimensions of "from wall finish" and went from rough framing. No-one claiming to be a general contractor, so finger pointing all around. I am looking at it for an occupancy approval and finding many little things, but corridor width is a major one.
 
I have heard that it was previously decided at 6 feet wide corridors due to lockers.
Most schools do not have lockers any more (due to security reasons).

Can you get the 70" wide space to qualify as an "exit passageway" instead of a "corridor"? The 72" clear only applies to corridors.
 
@ ~ @

Inspector 102, ...suppose the state review doesn't grant an exemption
in your variance..........Now what ?.......Remove 2 inches of walls \ ceilings
\ ducting \ plumbing \ other ? :oops:

@ ~ @
 
Exit passageway is an interesting twist, but I think when the State Fire Marshall reviews it, they will not agree. If the State does not grant an exemption, then the owner will have to revise the construction after deciding who is going to pay for it. I am hopeful that the State would allow the exemption based on calculating Means of Egress Sizing @ .2 inches per occupant x 184 Occupant Load = 36.8 inches as suggested by another response. Even at 70 inches, that calculates to 350 persons and that is not considering that these are students and probably smaller in size. I am guessing that the State review will take about 2 months, but I will give update as soon as a resolution is achieved.
 
Passageways that lead to building equipment and systems must be at least 24 inches (610 mm) in width to provide a means to access and service the equipment when needed. Because of the frequency of servicing intervals and the limited number of occupants in these normally unoccupied areas, a reduced width is warranted. The minimum width criteria apply to many common situations, such as stage lighting and special-effects catwalks; catwalks leading to heating and cooling equipment; as well as passageways providing access to boilers, furnaces, transformers, pumps, piping and other equipment.

Except for small buildings, Group E occupancies are required to have minimum 72-inch-wide (1829 mm) corridors where the corridors serve educational areas. This width is needed not only for proper functional use, but also because of the edge effect caused by student lockers and other boundary attractions and objects. Service and other corridors outside of educational areas, such as an administrative area, would be regulated consistent with their use. Note that Section 1020.4 would not allow wall lockers to overlap the required corridor width.
 
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